South Korea: No Free Trade Deal For Nation That Eats Dogs And Cats

***Kinship Circle believes an animal-free diet is the ultimate way to end cruelty and the devastating impacts of animal agriculture. We believe confinement, deprivation, drugging, brutalization, slaughter, dismemberment and consumption are bad for dogs, cats, pigs, cows, chickens, goats and all who live. We advocate for an end to the suffering of all.

It’s inserted just above the sample letter in the alert below…
Thanks! Brenda

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2/22/10 – KINSHIP CIRCLE – NOW ONE LIST…ONE VOICE FOR ANIMALSSouth Korea: No Free Trade Deal For Nation That Eats Dogs And Cats

South Korea’s cat/dog consumption industry won’t end for ethical reasons. But a blow to South Korean financial interests may finally make them take notice. Urge the Obama Admin and U.S. Congress to not approve a United States – South Korean Free Trade Agreement. Send comments now.

*****ABOUT EMAIL ADDRESSES BELOW*****Most Congresspersons use constituent-only web contact forms now. However, we searched documents from various Congressional committees, meetings, and initiatives to find some personal emails. WE CANNOT GUARANTEE THAT ALL THE EMAIL ADDRESSES BELOW ARE STILL VALID.

***Kinship Circle believes an animal-free diet is the ultimate way to end cruelty and the devastating impacts of animal agriculture. We believe confinement, deprivation, drugging, brutalization, slaughter, dismemberment and consumption are bad for dogs, cats, pigs, cows, chickens, goats and all who live. We advocate for an end to the suffering of all.

I respectfully ask the Obama Administration to NOT ratify the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Labor unions and automakers oppose the accord as written, as do many Democrats who want South Korea to eliminate blockades to U.S. auto exports.

Furthermore, South Korea selectively complies with its own laws and misleads the global community. Government corruption is particularly evident in its application of animal welfare policy. For example, South Korea is the only nation to openly slaughter cats and dogs for human ingestion. It fails to uphold its own Food Sanitation Law of 1984, which bans dog broths (Boshintang) as “disgusting foods.” Some two million dogs are butchered for their meat every year.

Amendments to Korea’s Animal Protection Act of 1991 stiffen penalties for animal abuse, but ignore dog meat markets — the chief source of cruelty. The law calls extraction of bodily fluids from a living animal unlawful cruelty, yet doesn’t ban the “liquefaction” of cats in pressure cookers to make elixirs presumed to heal arthritis, neuralgia, and other human conditions.

How can a country unable to enforce its own laws abide by the terms of any Free Trade Agreement?

Gentle animals, historically bred as loyal companions to people, are systematically tortured to “tenderize” their tissue and expel the adrenaline believed to act as a sexual aphrodisiac when eaten. Their bones are slowly broken with pipes and hammers. They suffer bloodletting, live dismemberment, hangings, boiling and more brutalities.

Documentation of wet markets reveals dogs (some still with ID collars) squashed inside fly-infested crates in the hot sun. For decades, South Korea has flouted international censure of this trade. They have manipulated every effort to end the agony of stolen or factory-farmed dogs and cats.

While animal protection may seem to be a marginal issue at first glance, I ask you to consider that in America, roughly 77.5 million dogs and 93.6 million cats live as companions with people (American Pet Products Manufacturers Association 2009-2010 National Pet Owners Survey).

U.S. voters, your constituents, oppose favored status for a nation that not only consumes cats and dogs — but deliberately torments them as well. Please do not confirm the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement.

After Haiti’s 7.0 earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince and nearby areas, Kinship Circle joined animal protection groups worldwide to form Animal Relief Coalition of Haiti (ARCH), led by International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).

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